Innovation is, rightly, high on the agenda for many charities at the moment. The need for the services and support provided has never been greater but neither has the challenge of raising the funds required to provide them.

Over the years I have done my fair share of recruitment and have been very successful in recruiting highly skilled and talented fundraisers. Last year, however, I started to find recruitment more difficult and found myself frequently having to go back to market. I was still getting a good number of applications which, on paper, looked like very credible but something wasn’t clicking.

I recently suggested to a colleague that they might find studying for the Diploma or Certificate in Fundraising very useful. This colleague is very talented and keen to develop, so I was a little surprised when they questioned me on what value the qualification would add to their future career prospects.

An old proverb says that the difference between a smart person and a wise one is that a smart one learns from their mistakes, and a wise one learns from the mistakes of others. One of the things I love about the charity sector in Scotland is how openly we share with others, and this is one of the reasons why I always look forward to the Scottish Fundraising Conference.

Ahead of the Community and Volunteer fundraising conference on 9 February, Gary Kernahan, Head of Volunteer Fundraising at Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, takes a look at the state of community fundraising in a Q&A blog.